Monday, March 01, 2010

Senior Night couldn't have gone much better for Da'Sean Butler. West Virginia's third all-time leading scorer had 22 points in his final game in Morgantown, and the 8th-ranked Mountaineers blew out Georgetown 81-68 Monday night, improving their record to 12-5 in conference and more importantly, earning WVU an all-important double-bye in the upcoming Big East tournament. The Hoyas played the game without Austin Freeman, who was back in D.C. battling the stomach flu, and they struggled mightily offensively in his absence. They committed 20 turnovers for the game, and they trailed by as many as 27 points early in the second half. The win was West Virginia's fourth in its last five games and it assured them their spot on the 3 line in our next bracket on Friday. Georgetown's headed in the opposite direction - they've now lost four of five, and they'll probably fall to the bottom of the 5 line Friday as a result. They finish up their regular season with a home game against Cincinnati on Saturday. West Virginia plays at Villanova on Saturday in its regular season finale.

Of note: Texas pulled away late to beat Oklahoma at home; Utah State beat beat Fresno State at home; Morgan State beat North Carolina A&T; Jackson State beat Arkansas-Pine Bluff at home.

21 comments:

I think we need to put asterisks next to the Hoyas' last two losses. Freeman played 23 min against ND, but he aired two shots. Mind you, I am not sure if he's aired two shots all year prior to that game. Also, he did not play last night. If they continue to falter once he gets over this stomach virus, then I agree. Their inconsistency is acceptable.

the committee does not take into account players who play 23 minutes but who are sick.

i don't even think that it will take into account the fact that freeman didn't play last night. do you really think that a 9-7 georgetown team would have beaten a 2 or 3 seed west virginia team on the road? it's not like they lost to a team that they would have been expected to beat with freeman.

actually, they don't. it would be absolutely impossible for the committee to factor in every player and how his illness may or may not have affected a team's performance. on any given night, there are a ton of guys playing hurt and sick.

freeman PLAYED against ND. there's no chance that that loss gets discounted because he may not have been at 100%. the committee might discount the west virginia loss a little bit because freeman didn't play. however, georgetown was expected to lose the game anyway so his absence wasn't that big of a deal.

oh. that's right. a bunch of reporters in february discussing something automatically means that the actual committee will factor that something in when it matters in march. seriously, how do you expect the committee to factor in every single injury and illness teams play with during the year? there literally are 1000s. georgetown is free to argue that the ND loss should be discounted because one of its best players was feeling a little ill, but the committee will toss that in the waste bin after seeing he played 23 minutes.

Hey man, I'm just saying ANYTHING can potentially be brought up in the discussion of a team, especially bubble teams. I am not saying that just because Freeman, who is arguably the Hoyas' most important player, was ill, and clearly wasn't himself, doesn't mean that the game should be discounted from either team's resume.

What I am saying is if the committee were comparing Notre Dame to, let's say, Old Dominion, ODU's win at G'town looks a tad better than ND's, because of Freeman's illness.

He could be. That's why I said 'arguably'; but, yeah, Monroe probably is. The guy is a monster.

To say the committee doesn't factor injuries and what not in, though, is pretty ludicrous.

Anyway, I can't believe no one mentioned that Harangody was out in that game (I kinda forgot about that one; is it me, though, or they playing better without him?). Chances are Harangody not playing at all had more of a negative impact on ND than Freeman playing 23 sick minutes had on Georgetown (more or less makes Freeman's illness moot).

BEI, now you are just making things up. who is claiming that the committee doesn't factor in injuries??? yeah, like the committee is going to ignore hummel's injury. what i have stated (and you disagree with) is that the committee DOESN'T account for sicknesses when the player plays over 1/2 the game. how would you even begin to quantify how sick he was and how much it affected his play? what about if he was up late studying the night before and was very tired? or out partying the night before and was very tired? i can't believe i have to state this again and again.

Well, it was debilitating enough that he scored the fewest amount of points of any other game, took the fewest amount of shots of any other game, played in the fewest minutes of any other game, and didn't start for the first time this season. Oh yeah, and he wasn't able to play in their next game because of the illness. I'd say it was pretty bad and it affected his play.

What's wrong with the committee bringing it up/factoring it in? They discuss everything.

I'm not so sure having a stomach illness negatively affecting your play is any different than having a sprained ankle that would, hence, the "injury" comment.

mag900 - I was at the Georgetown / ND game. Freeman 'played' 23 minutes, but he was really invisible on the court.

Anonymous - You are so right about ND spreading the ball around and being more successful without Harangody. In their first 12 Big East games with Harangody, ND scored 1.127 per possession. They gave up 1.127 per possession.

In their last four without Harangody, they scored a sparkling 1.222 points per possession. They gave up a mildly improved 1.117 points per possession in that same stretch.

The key for ND is to slow the game down and spread the ball around. They are 4-0 in games (v. WV, v. USF, v. Pitt, @ GU) that involve 60 possessions or less.

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